Fighting meth: Don't mandate prescription

Stanley Cox

Sedalia

Everyone who cares about his or her community wants to crack down on meth production. But I must take issue with Councilman Jeff Seifried's proposal for the city of Springfield to require its citizens to obtain a doctor's prescription before buying medicines containing pseudoephedrine ("Springfield bill would make meth ingredient prescription only," Sept. 7).

While Seifried's intentions are pure, I believe a prescription mandate on these medicines is the wrong way to fight meth.

Such an approach would unfairly burden the vast majority of Springfield residents who buy these products for their intended purpose: to fight cold and allergy symptoms.

A prescription requirement would raise the cost of acquiring health care and force some consumers to take time off work to visit the doctor when their allergies are acting up. During these challenging economic times, the last thing people need is to miss out on wages because of unneeded doctors' visits.

In recent years, I've been proud to work with my colleagues in the Missouri House of Representatives on common-sense solutions to our meth problem. Missouri has a real-time, stop-sale system in place that's preventing tens of thousands of illegal pseudoephedrine purchases every year. Local and state lawmakers should focus on ways to improve this targeted system, rather than pursuing policies that will negatively impact taxpayers.

I hope that the Springfield City Council will put aside this misguided proposal.

Stanley Cox represents the 118th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.

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Fighting meth: Don't mandate prescription

Sedalia Everyone who cares about his or her community wants to crack down on meth production.